Christ the Lord (Part 2 of 3)

Peace on earth is something we hear a lot about at Christmastime. But what does a baby born in a manger 2,000 years ago have to do with the peace about which the angels sang? Well today on Truth for Life we'll find out what true peace is and how it changes our lives. Alistair Begg is teaching from the opening verses of Luke chapter 2. The announcement.

So what do we read? Well somewhere in the fields of Bethlehem where David, many centuries before, had also kept sheep, these men were going about business as usual. They were watching over their flocks at night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. There is something downright scary about the unknown.

Natural men and women have got no conception of the spiritual world. We don't understand what it is that's up there that's dark and difficult and perhaps dangerous. And if for a moment some manifestation of this world were to come and make a dramatic appearance, I think we would be honest enough to say, we should be terrified too. Don't be afraid, he says, I bring you good news, great joy for all the people. Incidentally, our friends and our neighbors, and some who are present today, who are living with great fear and would love to make the discovery of great joy, need to be told in a kind and straightforward manner that you cannot move from great fear to great joy without a discovery of the good news.

I know you're greatly terrified. You shouldn't be, because I want to tell you something, and it's good news. In fact, it's the best news. And this news is so good it'll put all your other news in perspective. Don't you think we would agree this morning that we would like to hear again this kind of news? Don't you think that this would have a compelling impact on the culture of our day in a society that is bedeviled by a continual stream of bad news, sad news, horrendous news?

We need to get it in perspective. We say to ourselves as we read our newspapers, as we face our lives, is there no good news around here? I feel an Ann Murray song coming on, but we sure could use a little good news today, right?

That's what the person says. Bombs here, and chaos there, and disappointment on this hand, and pain here. And if we're honest about our lives, this morning many of us are not coming to worship, out of the fullness and enjoyment of a job well done and of life well lived, but we are frankly in trouble.

And we're wondering if there is any possibility of getting perspective on the framework of our lives. And here we discover, out of the angelic message, this wonderful story, good news, great joy. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever know. That God has a plan for the world that He has made, and that God has a plan for you this morning as an individual.

God knows you, made you, and purposefully brought you to this place. And in the face of all that you are experiencing, He comes by His Spirit through His Word to put your life in perspective and to bring you good news, the best news. Now, hardly surprising in light of the content of the announcement, that God should then choose to illuminate the night sky by the provision of these celestial beings and also by this striking miraculous phenomenon. Unto you is born this day a Savior, and he is Christ the Lord.

He is the Messiah. Now, in the arrival of Jesus, a Savior has come who knocks into a cocked hat all the other pretenders at saviorship, including the Roman authorities and their great Caesars and proud Augustuses. And the angelic chorus sings of a peace which is vastly different from the Pax Romana that had been such a great thing and was to continue to provide an opportunity for the spread of the gospel and which was directly linked to Augustus and to all of his might and his power. But that peace is dwarfed before the wonder of this. Let's think about peace for a moment. What is this peace, then, on earth? Peace on earth.

I've heard a number of sermons on this, many of which are totally fatuous. First of all, let's just say what this peace is not. The peace referred to here in the angelic song does not mean that there's going to be no more war. No more war. Now, it's customary to go to certain churches around Christmastime and hear somebody say, And peace on earth, and good will towards men, and then launch into a big thing about the Northern Ireland crisis and about the West Bank and everything else.

Totally off the point. Jesus himself tells his disciples, he says, There will be wars. There will be rumors of wars. There will be dramatic signs in the heavenlies. There will be earthquakes. There will be floods. He says, When these things emerge, don't get worried about it.

Those are the birth pangs. Those are the indications of the fact that I am going to come again. But the angelic throng was not suggesting that as a result of the arrival of this baby in this manger, there was going now to be peace on earth. And yet that's the Harry Belafonte Christmas, is it not?

That man will live forevermore because of Christmas Day, and he will live in this place of wonderful peace. If that actually was the message, we'd have to say that Christianity is a downright failure. Because two thousand years after the message has been announced, there's war all the time. There's bloodshed everywhere. So if the message was the end of war, then we'd have to say Christianity is a flop.

We'd better move out of the road and let somebody else come in and try and make a go of this. Well, of course, we do know that in the second coming of Christ there will be peace. The prophets wondered at the suffering servant and how that would be manifested, and they wondered about the victorious king and how that would come about. And here in his incarnation, we see all of the expression of the suffering servant, and when finally he comes in the clouds and in great glory, we will see every indication of him as a victorious king.

And then the lion will lie down with the lamb. But not today. So it doesn't mean that. Nor does it mean some dimension of personal or psychological tranquility whereby individuals are removed from life's disappointments, shocks, and tragedies. Again, we'd have to be honest and say that if that were the message, then it was a downright mess. Because we still experience fear, we still experience disappointment, we still experience pain and illness and retribution and all these other things. Now, undoubtedly, Christ makes a difference, and we'll see that in just a moment, but he doesn't remove us from that realm.

Well then, how can we get our hands around this notion of peace? Well, we'll be helped by going back into Zechariah's song for just a moment and reminding ourselves that when he talks about the people's feet being guided in the path of peace in verse 79, that is in relationship to the light shining on those in darkness and in the shadow of death. That is on account of the one who has come as the rising sun from heaven.

That is on account of the tender mercy of God, and that is a result of forgiveness of sins, which of course is the nature of the knowledge of salvation. The peace of which the angels sing is peace with God. Says one ancient commentator, while the emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from passion, grief, and envy. He cannot give peace of heart for which man yearns more than even for outward peace. Now, let me try and tie this all together by saying three things about peace. First of all, peace with God doesn't exist naturally. Peace with God doesn't exist naturally.

Despite the endeavors of men and women to press, for example, the Christmas story to that conclusion, it just isn't so. In fact, when we read the Bible, we discover that while God loves us, at the same time his wrath is revealed from heaven against all the wickedness and ungodliness of men. And when we take that big phrase, wickedness and ungodliness, and we put ourselves into it, we say, I think I'm somewhere in that.

And the fact is, we are. And God's wrath is revealed against that. So there is a hostility, a divine hostility, in the equation of a holy God and sinful man. And at the same time, there is an innate human hostility towards God. Oh, we don't usually find this by people walking around with the signs that say, I am totally hostile to God. Nor even in polite conversation will people volunteer the fact of the sin.

It comes out in different ways. We're talking with them about the nature of the gospel, and all of a sudden they will say—they might even lean forward on the table, and they say, I can never forgive God for that. And suddenly you see, in their eyes and from their lips, that their heart is hostile towards God. They are angry at God.

Illegitimately, but nevertheless angry. So the notion that what you need to do is go to church and have somebody tell you something that you didn't know—namely, that this peace of God and with God and with each other is actually there, you just have to kind of grab hold of it, you know. And you all hold hands and go, All we are saying is, give peace a chance. You know, it's just there. You just have to give it a chance.

It's not there. And secondly, the peace of God doesn't exist naturally, and the peace of God does not come about as a result of our endeavors. In other words, we can't make peace with God. Now, think this out for a minute. There is a hostility between the Creator and the creature, and we cannot fix it. Now, that has got an equal problem in the mind of a logical thinker.

If the God who made us has an appointment with us, which we must inevitably keep, as the Bible says, and we are at the moment in a place of dis-peace with God, and we cannot effect peace with God, then what in the world are we supposed to do? Well, of course, the answer of religion is, try a little harder. Now, remember Glenn Campbell's song, you've got to be a little kinder.

What was that thing? Shine your light on everyone you meet, and if you give a little kindness, you'll find a little kindness, and da-da-da-da-da. You know, and you sing along with that, and then eventually you go, This is bogus.

This is stupid. Oh, it's true to a measure. You know, if you hold the door open for somebody, the likelihood is that if there's another door eight feet from the first door, they'd probably hold the door open for you.

A little kindness here, a little kindness there. But at the level of the need for peace, we can do it. And yet religion says, Try. Every false system of religion says to the listening congregation, Come on now, you can do it. Says to the person, Come on now, you better do it. You must do it.

Because every religion is prepared to acknowledge that this thing is wrong. I was at Hopkins Airport in the last ten days or so, diving in and out of the washroom, washing my hands, paying attention to nobody at all, looking mainly at my hands, and I was conscious that the person next to me was apparently doing something that was unusual. But as I looked out of the corner of my eye, I felt that he was doing this, standing in front of the mirror. And as I turned and I looked, that is exactly what he was doing.

So now he has me hooked. And he reaches in, and he gets water, and he gets soap on his hands, and then he starts, and he's washing his shoes like this. And I looked, and his shoes were cleaner than mine.

It wasn't that I thought maybe the guy had tripped and fallen. He needed to wash his shoes. His shoes were fine.

And he's washing his shoes. Then I said, Muslim? And he said, Yes. And he said, God is very gracious to me.

In a broken, Mideastern accent. God is very gracious to me, because when I'm in public, I don't have to take off my socks and shoes. I can simply do it by washing my shoes. And I said, Five times each day? He said, Five times each day.

There was no context created to be grabbed. But I wanted to say to him, Sir, you don't need to do this. And if you spend the rest of your life doing this, you will be no closer to God at the end of your life than you are right now. On what authority can I say that or even think that?

Only on the authority of this book. I want to say, Hey, there's good news of great joy that has come to all the people. You don't have to do this. And some of you are sitting there, and you say to yourself, Well, I'm glad I'm not a Muslim. I'm free from that. Ah, but you're an American, aren't you?

Cursed with the same issue. What, washing your feet in public? No, not at all. Congregations all around Cleveland this morning are sitting, waiting for the end of the sermon as you are waiting for the end of the sermon. And when they take their leave of the speaker, either literally or metaphorically, they will go with his hand on their back, saying to them as he launches them out into Monday, On you go now, and do the best you can. On you go now, and try a little harder.

On you go now, and do your best. And they think that's the gospel, that you come as a kind of messed-up freak, you find out how it's supposed to be descriptively, you psych yourself up for it, and then you go out to try your best to make peace with God. No wonder people are in such futility. No wonder there is no joy in religious convocations. No wonder there is such a sense of death and mothballs in the average sanctuary into which we go for worship.

Why? Because this isn't the gospel. Do you understand what the gospel is?

That's my last point. This peace with God doesn't exist naturally. This peace with God cannot be created by our own endeavor.

That's a problem, but here's the solution. Christ's mission was to establish this peace. Now, you see, that's the significance of two verses given to the incarnation. Because these fellows were not writing biographies, they were writing gospels.

They weren't concerned with all the minute details of everything. They were concerned to make clear to those who were prepared to listen the nature of the gospel. So they take just a couple of verses to say, And as she brought forth her son, she wrapped him in cloth, she laid him in a manger, and then the angel showed up. And the angel said this.

Why? Because what the angel said gives to us the explanation for this dramatic occurrence. Now, how does this Jesus in a manger make peace? Well, he doesn't make peace in the manger. He makes peace by his blood shed on the cross.

You can read that in the whole Bible, but in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 20. And he has established peace. He has made a way back to God from the dark paths of sin. There's a door that is open that you can go in, and at Calvary's cross, that's where you begin when you come as a sinner to Jesus. Now, let me finish and spend a moment by asking a question of you. Do you know this peace?

Do you know this peace? If there's a way back to God from the dark paths of sin, if there's a door that is open that you may go in, if the door swings on the hinge of the cross of Christ, have you as an individual entered through that door? Every so often, when you're driving and you get hopelessly lost, as I do from time to time, you seek out somebody to point you in the right direction. And just once in a blue moon, somebody puts their head in the driver's side of your car, and as they see the blank expression on your face, as they explain to you, well, go down there and ignore the first on the left, but take the second on the right and take that south and so on. And they know in looking at your face that you are about to burst into tears, because you feel yourself more lost now than you were when the guy started to explain how to get where you're trying to go. And that's how some people feel when they come to church. They come to church, they feel lost, and then the guy tries to explain to them how they can get to their destination. Then they want to burst into tears, because it sounds even worse than when they arrived. And then the guy says to you, he said, you know what?

I can tell you're not getting this. Why don't you just let me get in the car with you, and I'll take you where you need to go? Why don't you just let me get in the car with you, and I'll take you where you need to go? See, that's what Jesus says. In all the profundity of the plan of redemption, in all of the immensity of the description that is contained for us here, Jesus comes to you, as it were, and he says, listen, I know you're lost.

Why don't you let me get in your life with you, and I'll take you where you need to go? And people say to us, what kind of church is Parkside? I mean, what denomination is it? What do you believe? This is what we believe. We believe that peace with God is not natural existence. We believe that man cannot put himself in a position where he knows peace with God. We believe that Jesus came to make possible that peace. And we believe that every individual needs to come to Christ and take as a gift the provision that he has made.

Trust him as a Lord and a Savior, and every day that he or she lives their lives, thank him for the amazing provision that he has made for them, since they could never, ever do it for themselves. Do you understand that this really is the source of joy? You ever see more gloomy-looking people than religious people? Well, I'm a very religious person. I'm doing my best, you know. I'll tell you what.

I would not stand for two seconds in front of you for the privilege of putting my hand at your back and saying, go on now, try your best. But I'll stand all day and all night for the privilege of saying to you, take Jesus Christ into your life, and allow him to take you to your destination. There's only one way to experience real peace, and that is to be reconciled with God.

And Jesus is the only one who makes that possible. That's Alistair Begg asking, do you know this peace? You're listening to Truth for Life. Alistair returns in just a minute to share more about this peace as he closes our program with prayer. If you'd like to know more about God's plan of redemption and how true peace is found only in Jesus, take a few minutes, watch a couple of free videos available on our website, visit the learn more page at truthforlife.org slash learn more.

Our great hope is that as you hear these messages on Truth for Life, God will use the teaching you hear to convert many from unbelief to saving faith and that he'll work through his word to strengthen those who already believe. We also make books available to help you deepen your relationship with God. The book we want to recommend today will guide you in your prayer time. It's a book called Every Moment Holy. It's a collection of prayers for the everyday circumstances of life. As we go through our days, it can be easy to miss God in the events that we consider small or insignificant, things like working around the house or running errands. Every Moment Holy encourages you to remember God at all times in all places. Request your copy when you give a donation to Truth for Life today.

Go online at truthforlife.org slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. Now here's Alistair with the closing prayer. Father, write your word in our hearts, we pray. Bring us from darkness to light, from sorrow to joy, from fear to faith. And fill our hearts with a genuine desire to make known the wonders of what you have done. If there is to be glory in heaven on account of you making peace possible on earth, then grant that our voices may be added to that great chorus of song. For Jesus sake we ask it.

Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. We hope you enjoy your weekend and are able to worship with your local church. When the angel announced the birth of Jesus, he wasn't speaking to high-ranking religious leaders. He was talking to a group of shepherds. How did they react? Join us Monday to find out. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.